Ready to create a year that includes all you desire?
I bet you are! But rather than creating resolutions that don’t stick, I invite you to try my “New Way New Year” Guide to design a lifestyle that allows you to move forward in life more naturally and enthusiastically. The guide is a quick exercise that will help you recommit and focus all of your efforts for the coming year.
Let’s get started
The exercise is broken into three parts. Before beginning, do the following:
- Connect with your best self
- Don’t bring judgment into the story of what happened or could happen
- Be as objective as possible
- Get to a positive place
Part One: Honor 2017
It’s important to take time to be complete with the past. This allows you to be in a better place to develop new goals (or as I call them “desired outcomes”) you wish to experience.
To help you feel “complete” with your past, begin with some questions to remind yourself of what happened (knowing that you can always learn from your past).
- What desired outcomes or accomplishments are you most proud of achieving? (How did you celebrate them?)
- What were your greatest failures or desired outcomes you didn’t achieve?
- What happened that you didn’t expect (i.e., any surprises)?
- What lessons did you learn from your successes, failures, and surprises?
- What were you grateful for as you pursued your desired outcomes? (What can you acknowledge yourself for (or thank yourself for) as you attained results?)
After you’ve answered these questions, identify and list any themes or patterns you notice across all five topics. Keep these themes in mind as you move to the next exercise.
Part Two: Look Ahead
With a deeper understanding of how you have evolved and with renewed energy, you can move forward with creating desired outcomes for 2018 that are even more relevant and enjoyable to experience. Ask yourself these questions:
- How are you different than the way you were before you tried to achieve the desired outcome(s)?
- What would you like to discard from the past? (Are there any failures you’d like to move past or any long-term desired outcomes that are no longer relevant?)
- What lessons would you like to take with you as you move forward?
- What do you want to focus on in the future? (It could be something you’ve identified from the questions or something new that is occurring to you.)
Part Three: Summary Statement
Now, make sure you’re in the mind-set of your best self, and then summarize (in a single statement) what you want in the near future. Make sure the statement is positive, present tense, powerful, and inspires new possibilities for your life.
Make this statement your mantra or guiding principle and use it to inspire and inform new desired outcomes.
I invite you to approach 2018 with a fresh perspective on life and create new adventures you’ll be excited to go for every day!
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